New wave of explosions rocks Lebanon; Israel declares 'new phase' of war | Foreign Policy, Defense, Security, News

In Wednesday's attacks, several explosions were heard at a funeral in Beirut where three Hezbollah members and a child were killed the day before by exploding pagers, Related Press Journalists on the scene. An AP photographer in the southern coastal city of Sidon saw a car and a cell phone shop damaged after devices exploded inside. In the south, a girl was injured when a solar panel exploded, the state news agency reported.

The new explosions hit a country still in turmoil and anger after Tuesday's pager bombings, which appeared to be a complex Israeli attack on Hezbollah members that also killed civilians. Tuesday's attacks killed at least 12 people, including two children, and injured about 2,800 others.

The second wave of attacks also heightens concerns about the potentially indiscriminate casualties of the attacks, in which hundreds of shots were fired wherever the pager wearer happened to be – in homes, cars, grocery stores and cafes, often near family members or passersby.

Although the pagers were used by Hezbollah members, there was no guarantee who was holding the device at the time of the explosion. Moreover, many of the victims were not Hezbollah fighters but members of the group's extensive civilian operations, which primarily serve Lebanon's Shiite community.

At least two health workers were among those killed on Tuesday. Doctors, nurses, paramedics, charity workers, teachers and office workers work for Hezbollah-linked organizations, and an unknown number of them were equipped with pagers.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk called for an independent investigation into the mass explosions. The fear and terror unleashed was profound, he said in a statement, and called on world leaders to work to defend the right of all people to live in peace and security.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, Lebanon's main armed force, and Israel's military have exchanged fire almost daily since Oct. 8, a day after a deadly Hamas attack in southern Israel sparked the war in Gaza. Since then, attacks have killed hundreds in Lebanon and dozens in Israel, while displacing tens of thousands on both sides of the border. Hezbollah has said its attacks are in support of its ally Hamas.

Israeli politicians have warned several times in recent weeks that they may step up operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying they must end the exchanges so people can return to their homes near the border. Israel began moving more troops to the Lebanese border on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, according to an official with knowledge of the movements who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

In his commentary, Gallant said that after months of fighting against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the focus is shifting with resources and forces being diverted north.

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with senior security officials at Israel's military headquarters in Tel Aviv, the country's army chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, said plans had been drawn up for further action against Hezbollah.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the United States was still assessing how the attack might affect efforts to negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

New details about the pager bombings have emerged. A U.S. official said Israel informed the U.S. after the attack that small amounts of explosives were hidden in the devices. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the information publicly.

The AR-924 pagers used in Tuesday's attack were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, based in the Hungarian capital Budapest, according to a statement from Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese company that authorized the use of its brand on the pagers.

Gold Apollo Chairman Hsu Ching-kuang told reporters on Wednesday that the company has had a licensing agreement with BAC for three years. “But the design and manufacture of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,” Gold Apollo said in a statement.

At the headquarters of a building in a residential area of ​​Budapest, the names of several companies, including BAC Consulting, are posted on pieces of paper in a window.

A woman who came out of the building and declined to give her name said the site listed the addresses of the headquarters of various companies.

BAC's parent company is registered to Cristiana Rosaria Brsony-Arcidiacono, who describes herself on her LinkedIn page as a strategic advisor and business developer.

The Associated Press attempted to reach Brsony-Arcidiacono through her LinkedIn page but was unable to establish a connection between her or BAC and the exploding pagers.

The attack in Lebanon began on Tuesday afternoon when pagers heated up in their owners' hands or pockets and then exploded, leaving blood-splattered scenes and panicked passersby.

Most of those affected appeared to be Hezbollah members or fighters or civilians associated with them, but it was not immediately clear whether people with no ties to Hezbollah were also affected.

The Health Ministry said that nurses and two children were among those killed. In the village of Nadi Sheet in the Bekaa Valley, dozens of people gathered to mourn the death of one of the children, nine-year-old Fatima Abdullah.

Her mother, dressed in black and wearing a yellow Hezbollah headscarf, wept along with other women and children as they gathered around the little girl's coffin before the funeral.

In a statement on Wednesday morning, Hezbollah said it would continue its normal attacks against Israel as part of what it describes as a support front for its ally Hamas and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

This path is uninterrupted and independent of the severe reckoning that the criminal enemy must expect for its massacre on Tuesday, it said. This is another reckoning that will come, God willing.